Decision makers

Help nood fight the man. The man as in the App Store.

nood is a photo editing app we created to battle the shame, restriction, and hypocrisy women face on the subject of nudity. It uses body-positive stickers to undermine censorship of the female form on social media platforms. By advocating for the empowerment of the female form and embracing nudity as expression, we hope to change the way female #noodity is perceived.

We recently submitted our app to the Apple App Store and were rejected due to “objectionable material." As stated in guidelines, objectionable content is qualified as overtly sexual or pornographic material, defined by Webster's Dictionary as "explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings."

nood is none of those things. It celebrates the beauty and life surrounding the female form. It shouldn't be seen as shameful, dirty, or inherently sexual. By deeming minimally-illustrated ladyparts as "inappropriate," the App Store is perpetuating the problem. Women's nipples aren't the problem. Sexual objectification is the problem.

This is particularly frustrating as there are far more “inappropriate and suggestive” apps that exist in the App Store, such as Sex Dice, Dirtymoji, and Perfect Girlfriend. This sends out a message that a woman’s body is socially acceptable when it’s objectified and sexualized in media, but not on her own terms. So we’re calling bullshit.

The Problem:The negative connotations surrounding the female form are a result of society often misinterpreting nudity for sexuality. When it comes to social media, we are forced to censor the female nipple, while we do not need to adhere to these guidelines with photos featuring topless men. By obscuring this natural form, we are perpetuating the over sexualization of the female body in the misguided interest of protecting younger generations.

The Solution:If we are going to be forced to cover our ladyparts, what better to do so with than ladyparts? nood is a photo editing application that uses body-positive stickers to undermine censorship of the female form on social media platforms — an alternative to the negative implications of the X’s and bars that are often used. By advocating for the empowerment of the female form and embracing nudity as expression, we hope to change the way female #noodity is perceived.--Our app was rejected based on "objectionable content." As stated in app guidelines, objectionable content is quantified by overtly sexual or pornographic material, defined by Webster's Dictionary as "explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings."

nood is none of those things. It uses minimal illustrated depictions of ladyparts as stickers to showcase the hypocrisy women face on the subject of nudity. It shouldn't be seen as shameful, dirty, or inherently sexual.

By deeming illustrated nipples and vaginas as "inappropriate," the App Store is perpetuating the problem. Women's nipples aren't the problem. Sexual objectification is the problem.

We are here to make progress and we are here to fight for gender equality. nood belongs in the Apple App Store.